Battle Royale International
by Bolshevik-Babe
Summary: Shiroiwa Junior High School Third Year Class B, Kagawa Prefecture has never been chosen for the Program. Relieved, Shogo has begun to come out of his shell and make friends. The Republic of Greater East Asia and allies have organized an international Program with students from each nation. Students are selected randomly and updates will be televised. Book/mangaverse.
1. Chapter 1

2

Shiroiwa Junior High School Third Year Class B of Kagawa Prefecture was never chosen to compete in the program. Greatly relieved by this fact, Shogo Kawada (Male Student No. 5) had begun to come out of his shell. Though still not terribly social and most certainly not the most popular student in his class, he had managed to build trust with a friendlier group of his fellow male students. Though still not terribly close with any one of them, he regularly invites his newfound friends Shuya Nanahara (Male Student No. 15), Shinji Mimura (Male Student No. 19), Yoshitoki Koninobu (Male Student No. 7), and Hiroki Sugimura (Male Student No. 11) to his home, where he lives alone. The boys still have no idea about his involvement in the Kobe Program. In fact, the only thing they knew about the mysterious Shogo Kawada is that his parents are both dead and that he is a year older than they are.

At this fact, Shogo soon grows depressed. Nobody of significance in his life was aware of what sort of fate he had met. Another student whom he had been developing a fondness for, Noriko Nakagawa (Female Student No. 15), was also in the dark when it came to his past. She was the only person whom he felt that he could trust with this information, and he did. One chilly night in mid-May, she swung short but slender legs out her bedroom window and stealthily moved through the streets after a brief phone conversation with Kawada.

She reaches his home surprisingly quickly, as he sounded rather distressed on the phone, and she falls right into his arms when he opens his front door. His voice sounds strained when he greets her. Once safely inside, Shogo directs Noriko to the couch, saying that he needed to confess something. He had also said that she was the only one whom he could ever tell this to, and begged her not to think differently of him.

Right then, he confessed everything. He told Noriko about the Program in Kobe, how desperate he was to find and protect Keiko. He admitted to killing his friends in desperate hope that he and Keiko could escape. He told her that he had only seen Keiko twice in the duration of the Program. The first time, she ran from him and the second, he had discovered her body.

Shogo had expected Noriko to get up and leave after that, but instead, she opens her arms to him, one hand around his waist and the other resting on his shoulder. She held him for half an hour as he fought against the tears, knowing wholeheartedly that they were coming. So many emotions were bubbling up to the surface, all of which he had worked so hard to keep repressed. There was the grief that possessed him any time that he dare recall his old life in Kobe, fear of being rejected if anyone found out about his past, the insecurity of possessing these emotions in the first place. Then there was the sudden relief. Noriko knew everything, and she had accepted him. He wanted to be with her, yet so did Yoshitoki. What could he say to his friend when Noriko looked upon him with that doe-eyed expression (an expression, until very recently, she had looked upon Shuya with)? There was a reason that he had, until just then, repressed his feelings for Noriko. The nature of his new life, of course, was still very precarious. Did he really want to risk his newfound friendships because of his feelings for this quiet but pretty girl who just so happened to be embracing him at this very moment?

Of course, he had only been made aware of Yoshitoki's crush as a result of overhearing a conversation between the boy in question and Shuya. Officially, he had no idea. Regardless of who would be hurt if Shogo pursued his feelings, Noriko's dainty right hand had just moved up from his broad shoulder to his cheek.

She had moved from kneeling in front of him on the couch to sitting quietly in his lap, and before Shogo was able to process the fact that _she _was making advances on _him, _her face met his with a gentle kiss. He grew stiff at this first, but very soon reciprocated the motion, closing his eyes and allowing one of his hands to rise up and comb through her soft, shoulder-length hair with his fingers.

It was awhile before either of them opened their eyes again, and upon doing so, Shogo was met with Noriko's warm, dark eyes. Their noses were touching at the tip, and the girl was smiling softly. Even in the rather low light provided by the dim lamp on the other side of the sitting room, he could see traces of dark ruddiness, standing out sharply on her fair complexion, along her cheekbones. Slowly, she raised her right hand to Shogo's forehead, stroking the knife scar softly with the pad of her thumb. She leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Shogo was extremely surprised by her words.

"Are you sure?" He was genuinely shocked about how forward she was being. Still, he was a hormonal sixteen year old boy. When she nodded, he showed no hesitation when pulling her into his arms and carrying her to the bedroom, bridal-style. She went breathless at his strength and agility, the red slowly taking over more of her face. She didn't even seem disgusted when, once perched on his bed, he pulled out a pack of condoms from the back of his sock drawer. All she did was pat the space next to her on the bed, beckoning him toward her.

Foil package now on hand, Shogo initiated the contact this time, leaning in as he approached to kiss the girl. She then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him down on top of her as they kissed. Shogo's shirt came off first, Noriko working one button at a time as her companion buried his face in her soft, jet black hair, breathing in her scent deeply. The two had stripped down to nothing in minutes, Noriko quietly examining the array of scars that Shogo kept hidden under his shirt.

"What did they do to you in that Program?" Noriko asked rather timidly, her voice breathless as she laid her head against the warm skin of his solid chest to listen to his heartbeat.

Instead of launching into an explanation, Shogo answered with a whispered, "I'll tell you later," before beginning to kiss the girl down her body, gentle and passionate.

Ever since that first night those two had spent together, alone in the complete and total privacy in Shogo's apartment, they had been all but inseparable.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Battle Royale, because I am writing a story based on it on the internet. Anyway, they also do not mention allies of the Republic of Greater East Asia in the novel or the film. I have not read the manga, so I'm not sure about that. I'm just expanding upon Koushun Takami's alternative universe here.

BATTLE ROYALE INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT

Every nation to have signed on to membership in the Anti-Imperialist Nations' Union (AINU) agrees to give up five youths, ages 14-18, to the purpose of an international Program. A great wealth of tactical information has been pulled from previous Programs, which have taken place in the Republic of East Asia for decades and in the German People's Republic for the past decade. As is common practice in the two nations who currently have Programs in practice, the home nation of the winner will provide a lifetime pension, as well as one other gift, to be specified by each government to fit their cultural boundaries and needs, to their victor.

Every nation participating will either have two males and three females, or three males and two females. If a nation is to send two males and three females this year, that same nation will send three males and two females next year, and so on.

Participating students are selected by random lottery, and will be taken from their homes under the guise of having won a free ticket to a vacation of some sort. Several free vacation contests will be held in close proximity to protect the privacy of this agreement. For the competition to remain on an equal playing field, the students must not know their fate upon departure.

The first nation to host the Program will be selected at random, with a different nation hosting every year. Once the cycle is completed, it will continue to repeat. This will also be a national event, happening once every year.

This competition will have the same classic Program rules that are implemented during Programs in the Republic of Greater East Asia and the German People's Republic.

Updates will be televised, and the Program will be advertised and watched as a general means of public entertainment. The winner will be shown on the news channels of every nation in the competition, and the regulations for making wagers on certain contestants will be specified by each central government.

New nations are always welcome to participate in the Program, though they will have certain expectations that are not present with veteran nations.

Language barriers will not be an issue, for all students in AINU nations are taught at least two ally languages from a very young age, in accordance with the original AINU agreement of 1974.

Participating nations of the first program are the Republic of Greater East Asia, the German People's Republic, the Persian Republic of Iran, the Mongolian Nationalist Republic, the Republic of Nepal, the National Socialist Republic of Russia, and the Bulgarian Slavic Union.


	3. Chapter 3

Noriko was escorted back home by Shogo the morning after, climbing back through her bedroom window not long before sunrise. Though her family generally rose early on Sunday, nobody was awake quite yet and as a result, she was not caught sneaking back into her bedroom. Once safely in her room, she turned back to look at Shogo in her backyard, smiling at him. He grinned back, winking once before disappearing back out onto the road to head home. If he had a car, he had told her, he probably would have used that. Despite the risk of the girl's parents waking up to the rumbling of the engine outside, it was the better option when it came to time and safety.

Directly afterward, Shogo had begun walking toward home and Noriko quickly slipped out of her skirt and pulled on the silk pajama shorts that she had gone to bed in. Her hair was a tad ruffled, and she was still in shock due to the events of the previous night, but she had a soft, blissful smile planted on her face. She didn't consider herself a gossip, but she could not keep this to herself for very long. She had slept with Shogo Kawada.

She had been rather smitten with Shuya Nanahara before she had really noticed Shogo. Shuya played the electric guitar in an illegal style of music that he called rock. He knew things about singers that she had never heard of, people like John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Jimi Hendrix. He sang beautifully, and there was just something about the way he played…

Shogo had transferred to the school back in April, but he had never really talked to anyone until they had arrived to the camp ground for their class study trip. Noriko remembered that weekend well. Shuya and Yoshitoki had been passing a flask of bourbon back and forth chatting idly to Hiroki Sugimura. Noriko had not been far away, conversing with Yukie Utsumi (Female Student No. 2) and Haruka Tanizawa (Female Student No. 12). The three of them had been giggling over the actions of the boys who were drinking on the couch.

After about half an hour of the boys watching Shogo sit in the corner and read, Yoshitoki, who had always been the friendliest boy in the class, walked over to the brooding boy and insist that he join them. To everyone's surprise, it hadn't taken much persuasion to convince the quiet transfer to liven up and start having fun. In fact, Shogo himself seemed to have changed throughout the course of that weekend. If course, he was still Shogo in essence. He still wasn't very friendly, nor did he talk much around the group that had found him when they were all together. Noriko had deduced, however, that Shogo _did _often have conversations on an individual level. From what she had heard, he talked mostly with Shuya and Hiroki. It made sense, of course. Shogo and Hiroki were both rather reserved, and, though Noriko had no idea about this at the time, Shuya and Shogo were both big rock fans.

However, not the entire study trip had been a good time. Noriko had been stuck in a cabin room with Hirono Shimizu (Female Student No. 10), who was in Mitsuko Souma's (Female Student No. 11) gang and tended to bully Noriko's friend, Megumi Eto (Female Student No. 3), and she had found her clothes ripped and things moved more than once during that first night alone. She had begged Mr. Hayadasha to find her a different cabin room once she found out about her assignment, but nobody was willing to room with Hirono Shimizu.

Noriko decided that she had enough when she walked back into her room after taking a shower and had discovered Hirono using Noriko's favorite t-shirt to clean up the makeup foundation which Hirono had spilled whilst attempting to apply it. She began yelling at her roommate, snatching a shirt from Hirono's suitcase and cutting it up with a pair of scissors that she had found lying on a desk. Hirono shrieked at that before dropping Noriko's t-shirt directly into the puddle of foundation on the floor and pulling out a razor blade from a tiny pocket on her purse.

Noriko's eyes bugged out at this gesture, but her body had frozen. She was too scared to run as Hirono slammed Noriko's slender body against the wooden wall and put the razor to her throat. Noriko clenched her eyes shut in fear at what was about to happen. However, it was only seconds before she felt the pressure holding her against the wall disappear. However, what she saw was nothing like what she had expected to see.

In front of her was Shogo Kawada, an unlit cigarette tucked behind his ear, with one big hand clamped onto the back of Hirono Shimizu's collar. He looked beyond angry, and she appeared to be shaking. Hirono had dropped the razor blade.

Shogo had whispered something to Hirono before leaving the room, bending down to pick up the razor blade before being on his way. It appeared to have been a threat, because the girl's face had completely blanched after hearing it. She didn't bother Noriko at all from then onward, and had even gone to the trouble of buying (well, probably stealing) the girl a new shirt once they had gotten back home. As a result, Shogo had immediately piqued her interest. This had been about two weeks earlier.

After reflecting quietly on her night that she had spent with Shogo, Noriko quietly crept into the hallway in order to take the cordless landline from its charging cradle by the bathroom. After all, she couldn't keep things to herself for long.

Once she was safe inside her room again, the phone sitting in her lap, Noriko suddenly remembered what Shogo had told her. _I can't tell anyone about last night, _she thought to herself, setting the phone aside. _What would he think of me if I did?_

She was just about to sneak the phone back to its charging cradle when she remembered when he had told her that, and in turn reminding her that she hadn't slept with him on _his _suggestion, but rather her own. So instead of putting the phone away, she went through the classmates whose numbers she knew. After a moment of consideration, she decided that Megumi Eto would be the best person to share her secret with. She was, after all, very trustworthy.

The line rang three times before Megumi picked up her cell phone to answer with a sleepy, "Hello. Who is this?"

Noriko sounded extremely alert in comparison, though her voice was hushed so that her parents couldn't here. "Good morning, Megumi!" Her excitement was clear, even through her low whisper.

"Noriko?" Megumi seemed to be slightly more alert now, as well as confused. "Why in the world are you up so early? It's Sunday!"

"Well, if you want to listen, that's just what I was about to tell you!" It was now very clear that Noriko was excited about something, and that something, Megumi could easily infer, was something that Noriko did not want her parents to be aware of. For a few seconds, Megumi knitted her brows in thought, trying to imagine what on earth Noriko Nakagawa could have done that could possibly get her into trouble. That girl was the _definition_ of good.

Finally, she gave up. "What on earth happened, Noriko?"Megumi asked, trying her almighty hardest not to sound curious. She was failing at it. "Did you go out partying with the Kiriyama Family last night or something?"

Noriko couldn't help but giggle at the very thought of that. Of course, not very long ago, she would have also giggled at the thought of spending the night with Shogo Kawada, and she had done that. "No," she answered. One could easily tell by her voice that she was smiling. "Not even close."

Megumi was even more curious now. Exactly how well did she really know Noriko Nakagawa? "What did you do?" she asked, now almost completely awake and dying to know the answer.

Noriko then dropped the giggles from her voice, which became rather serious and even a bit stern. "You have to promise not to tell anybody, okay?"

Reflexively, Megumi nodded before realizing that she was over the phone. After she reminded herself of that fact, she whispered, "I promise I won't tell anyone, Noriko. Now can you tell me?"

Going back to the memory of the previous night, she thought of a thousand different ways in which she could explain and describe the previous night. However, she held back and bit her tongue. "You know the quiet guy who transferred to our class last month, Shogo?"

Noriko couldn't see this, but Megumi's eyebrows shot straight up at the mention of Shogo. Her only real memory of him was the day that Ryuhei Sasagawa (Male Student No. 10), who was friends with Kazuo Kiriyama (Male Student No. 6), tried to intimidate him. Ryuhei had run away crying to Kazuo, and yet Noriko was on a first name basis with this boy. "Kawada?" Megumi asked incredulously, and with just a hint of fear. "The one with all the scars? What about him?"

Noriko could feel her face heating up as she recalled the previous night. "Well, I don't know if I told you this, but he stopped Hirono Shimizu from cutting me up with a razor blade on the class trip. And I spent the night at his apartment…"

Megumi's jaw dropped at that, and she almost dropped her phone as well. "Noriko, you didn't!"

Noriko's face was beet red now. "He's really nice, Megumi. You'd probably really like him if you talked to him, you know. He and Shuya are friends."

Of course, Megumi was still trying to process the information that had been given to her. _Noriko Nakagawa had slept with a boy. _But, of course, Shogo Kawada wasn't just any boy either. He was new, and he had a bad reputation. She had seen some of those scars, and she knew that he just _had _to be involved with some kind of crime. Of course, Noriko was still her friend, and she seemed to be completely crazy for Shogo. Not to mention, Megumi was curious. She couldn't help herself. "What was it like?"

Noriko giggled at the prospect of answering that question. "Well, he called last night and asked if I wanted to hang out. So I snuck out and went to his apartment and we talked for awhile. And, well, I actually kissed him. And from there, it just happened." Noriko, of course, had more details that she could tell than that. But this wasn't the only extension on the landline, and she wanted to stay on the side of caution, especially since she had just heard her parents' bedroom door open. "I'll tell you more tomorrow, okay."

Megumi muttered something that sounded like an agreement before hanging up. Noriko followed suit, and tucked the phone into her pillowcase so she wouldn't have to explain to her father why she had the phone in her bed with her.


	4. Chapter 4

At about the same time that Noriko Nakagawa had called Megumi Eto on the phone, still breathless with the events of the previous night, Shogo was just re-entering his apartment building. He had a still-smoldering cigarette filter clamped between his lips, keeping an eye out for a place to throw it. Today, despite all the shit that had been flung into his life over the past year, he finally had a reason to smile. Things were finally beginning to sort themselves out.

It was an exceptional day for Shogo, really. He had been honest about his past with someone, and she hadn't turned away from him. In fact, she seemed to like him even more now, shocked and maybe even a little impressed with his honesty.

Finally entering back into his apartment, he stuck the cigarette butt into the ash tray that sat on his coffee table and pulled out yet another smoke. As he did this, he made a mental note to go and purchase another carton of Wild Seven cigarettes on his next trip to the grocery store. He was running dangerously low.

Until that very moment, Shogo had forgotten almost completely about Yoshitoki. How would the friendliest kid in the class, the one who had walked over to him during that class study trip and insisted that he 'join the party', react when he discovered that Shogo harbored an interest in the girl that he was in love with? He didn't want to think about it, but he knew that he would have to deal with it sometime soon. He wouldn't ever want Noriko to think that he was ashamed of her, for one.

Shogo was at the end of the line. He needed advice, and there was only really one person that he knew who could possibly help him. This person also happened to be the only one of his new group of friends with any profound experience in anything female. He immediately went to his address book to look up the phone number of one Shinji Mimura.

Lucky for Shogo, Shinji had stayed up all night as well, though he had been hunched over his home computer instead of wooing a girl. He accidentally knocked over an empty Styrofoam coffee cup while reaching for his cell phone, but he was fortunately able to answer the call around the end of the third ring. He spoke quietly, in a voice that was somewhere between the realms of exhausted and hyped up on caffeine. "Who the hell's calling me this early?" he grumbled into the speaker.

This was slightly off-putting for Shogo, who wasn't sure exactly how helpful Shinji would be in his current state. It was quite easy to tell that he was already pretty cranky. He had probably been up nearly as long as Shogo had, or longer. In the end, he let out a long yawn. "Shinji?"

"Shogo?" Shinji seemed puzzled as to why Shogo Kawada, a boy he had only really known for a little more than two weeks now, was calling him this early in the morning with such a note of urgency in his tired voice. Whatever it was, Shinji figured that it had to have been pretty important. "What's up, man?"

Shogo bit his lip and hesitated a moment before replying. "You aren't going anywhere soon, are you?"

"No…" Shinji rubbed his fingers through the greasy mop atop his head. Usually, his hair would have been gelled in a stylishly spiky fashion, but he hadn't been out or in the shower all weekend. He had been busy at work in front of his computer, trying to develop a game that he could share with his friends. "Are you in some kind of trouble or something?"

Shogo took a moment to ponder his answer before shaking his head and muttering, "No, I'm fine. I just need your opinion on something, and it's kind of important. I'm not in trouble." He took a deep breath. "Don't question what I tell you, and don't repeat a word that I say. Alright?"

Even more confused than he had been before, Shinji sighed. He would have been lying had he said that he wasn't worried about what he was about to hear. "Alright. Run it by me, and I'll try to help."

On the other line, Shogo cleared his throat before he launched into his story. "Okay, let's just say, hypothetically, a guy relatively new to town became acquainted with this group of guys, and had overheard a conversation about a girl that he was not supposed to hear. This conversation was between two people that this hypothetical guy was friendly with, and he had learned that one of his friends had an interest in this one particular girl."

Tired and cranky, Shinji interrupted. "What the hell is this about, Kawada? I need to get some sleep before I keel over."

Knitting his eyebrows in frustration as he lights up a third cigarette, Shogo hesitates before admitting, "Noriko may have spent the night at my apartment last night."

If Shinji hadn't quite been awake before, he certainly was now. "And you knew that Yoshitoki liked her?" he questioned, not quite believing what he was hearing. "What the hell did he ever do to you?"

Shogo let out a deep, heavy sigh. "You don't get it, man. It wasn't like that. I can open up to that girl."

Shinji seemed to consider this a moment before replying. "So you actually like Noriko Nakagawa?" He had been surprised when he had learned that Yoshitoki liked Noriko. After all, she was rather plain in his opinion. Girls like Takako Chigusa (Female Student No. 13), however, were well worth all the time and energy that his friends spent on girls like Noriko. "You're serious?" He couldn't believe _Shogo _was into Noriko too.

The conversation continued on for quite awhile, Shinji still in complete disbelief at what Shogo had told him. _Shogo Kawada_, the guy in Third Year Class B who had his own apartment and complete privacy whenever he needed it, was focused on _Noriko Nakagawa, _the plain girl who wrote pretty compositions and blended in with everyone else. On the other line, Shogo was frustrated. Shinji wasn't taking him seriously. This he found, is why, out of all of the people whom he had become close acquaintances with at Shiroiwa, he had liked Shinji the least. Most people couldn't really see it, but Shogo found Shinji to be frustratingly arrogant. This is why he chose not to deal with him unless he had to.

The small dispute that they had been having quickly turned to yelling and cursing. It wasn't until Shinji had woken up his mother with all the yelling that he had hung up on Shogo, and by then, Shogo's good mood had been completely ruined.

_Great, _Shogo thought, pulling a fourth cigarette out of the box in his coffee table and going to light it. _Now I'm even more screwed over than I was before. Who was I kidding? I wasn't going to be able to make any real friends. _

He wanted to just sleep all day, but he couldn't pass out with a lit cigarette between his lips. So Shogo Kawada hastily finished off the last bit of the smoke that he had taken out before stretching out on the couch. It was that same couch where, seven hours before, he had spilled his heart out to Noriko.


	5. Chapter 5

**The plot I'm doing requires a little bit of interpretation. I don't think I'm terribly OOC as far as Kawada goes. I just pictured him getting along best with Sugimura in a world where this particular class was never chosen for the Program. **

**And I switch between given names and surnames a lot. I know. It just depends on the flow of what I'm writing.**

Monday morning, and one Shogo Kawada was already daydreaming again. The only difference was that he wasn't staring out the window today, but in what was unmistakable as toward Noriko. He was certainly keeping up the tough guy act rather well despite the recent acquisition of friends, but nobody would dare mistake this gaze for hostility. From what he felt welling up inside him whenever he looked at the girl, Shogo was willing to bet that even cold as ice Kiriyama could sense what he was feeling.

No matter how zoned out he became, however, Shogo did not want to let himself fall asleep. In thinking about possible consequences, he went back to a memory of lunch with his father at age thirteen. Around this time, he vaguely recalled, his father had informed him that he had quite a habit of talking in his sleep.

_Best keep a lid on it_, Shogo thought, smirking. _Could go one of two ways, and neither are particularly desirable. _

"Kawada?" The voice sounded oddly distant, but it still caught Shogo off guard. He jerked his head back and opened his eyes to find that their teacher, Mr. Hayashida, standing in front of him. The fairly pleasant and rather personable teacher was looking at him with an expectant stare. Of course, his large, round glasses made this rather difficult to take seriously. "Are you still with us? I was afraid we had lost you."

Several members of the class let escape a collective chuckle, most of them having already turned to face Shogo at his back corner seat. "Hmm?" He was still a little out of it.

Mr. Hayashida then shook his head briefly, straightening himself up and clearing his throat. "So, back to the lesson." He turned around and walked steadily back up to the front of the room, turning again to face the class. "Kawada," he said, his eyes back on Shogo. "Can you please explain to the class the process of osmosis?"

This question was met with nothing but silence from Shogo, who, despite being the son of a doctor, knew very little about smaller cell structure such as this. He knew the first aid skills, but next to nothing about the biology behind the human body. Lucky for him, however, class representative Kyoichi Motobuchi had his hand up and answered the question for him almost immediately.

"Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement of solvent molecules through a partially permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in the direction that tends to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides," Kyoichi explained, almost as if he had simply memorized the textbook. "It controls the balance of molecules in order to maintain the health of the organism."

When Mr. Hayashida turned to look at Motobuchi, Shogo was left to exhale in relief. "Is your name Kawada?" the teacher asked. "No? Then don't answer."

That one earned snickers from most of the Kiriyama family, more specifically everyone but Kiriyama himself. As always, Hayashida tapped on his desk with a ruler a few times in an attempt to rein in the delinquents. "That's enough," he said before dropping the ruler and gesturing toward the chalk board behind him. On it was a list of pages, sections, and topics, all relating to basic cell biology. "Your unit test will be this Wednesday. Until then, you will be given opportunity to review and ask questions in class. These are the things that your exam will focus on." He then gestured toward the board right as the shrill sound of the school bell filled the room. "Don't be afraid to ask questions!" he called as all of the students filed out of the classroom, neatly separating into their distinct groups upon entering the hallway on their way to lunch.

After giving Shogo a sidelong, accusatory glance, Shinji immediately immersed himself into a conversation with his longtime friend Yutaka Seto, who still regarded Shogo with rigid respect, even after the larger boy had begun to loosen up. Kawada had thought that he had been the only one to notice this, but he was proven wrong when a puzzled Hiroki Sugimura appeared at his side. "What was that about?"

On impulse, Shogo took one look at Sugimura and simply shrugged. "Mimura doesn't like competition? I don't know."

Hiroki rolled his eyes, though he was also smirking slightly. "While I do agree on that, I also have a feeling that has nothing to do with that look he just gave you."

Once again, Shogo simply shrugged. "Me and him aren't exactly close," he pointed out. "Should he be hugging me or something?"

Hiroki laughed at that comment. "I think he'd rather not give Sho the wrong idea," the gentle-natured boy remarked, his eyes drifting reflexively toward two bobbing heads of dark hair a few feet in front of them.

Shogo was just about to reply with something that would most likely involve poor taste and crude humor when a smiling girl with fierce features and an abundance of jewelry stepped in front of Sugimura. Kawada immediately recognized the girl as Takako Chigusa, who Hiroki had been friends with, from what Shogo knew, for a very long time. Though Shogo also paused, his intention of continuing to talk with Sugimura at least until they had arrived at the cafeteria rather apparent, it seemed to take a moment for Chigusa to realize that he and Sugi had been in conversation.

"Hi, Kawada," she said, looking toward him with a rather distant smile. It's not like Shogo hated the girl, but he really wasn't crazy about Chigusa. Sure, she was Sugimura's friend and he had no issues with her as a person, but she could be awfully cold.

_ Then again, _Shogo thought. _So can I._

"Chigusa," Shogo muttered, nodding in acknowledgement toward the girl before bidding her and Hiroki a farewell and beginning to once again walk with the crowd.

Shiroiwa really wasn't that interesting of a town, really. After leaving Hiroki and Takako behind to do whatever it is that they do, Shogo made his way through the hall, observing the various forms of life that surrounded him.

A group of boys, including Hatagami, Oki, and Niida from Shogo's own class, were leaning against the lockers, amusing themselves with a game of hackey sack. Kawada also caught sight of Souma's gang entering the girl's bathroom, along with the Kiriyama family gathering themselves near the emergency fire exit. The gang's second in command, and the man who usually ended up as their enforcer, Mitsuru Numai, was clearly trying to make it look like he wasn't watching Izumi Kanai idly chat to Yukie Utsumi. A few seconds passed by, and Noriko joined the other two girls. Taking a deep breath, Shogo made his way over to them, making a very honest attempt at a friendly smile.

While Noriko's face lit up as she caught sight of Shogo appearing at her side, the other two girls looked rather alarmed. Yukie inhaled sharply, her smile quickly melting off her face, and her hands went to nervously playing with the ends of her braids, and Izumi almost immediately clamped her lips together and took a tight grip on her school bag. Both made no attempts to conceal their staring.

Noriko's face fell a little after seeing the other girls' reactions, but she had almost no trouble shifting herself so that she was standing closer to Shogo. "You guys know Kawada from class," she said to her friends, still maintaining a smile and then turning to Shogo. "And you know Izumi and Yukie."

Shogo knew that he could be a rather off-putting person, but nonetheless he tried to be friendly. "Hello," he said, his right arm drifting behind Noriko's form to rest a hand on the girl's lower back. Noriko responded to his gesture by leaning into him.

At that point, it clicked in Yukie's head what was going on. Her eyebrows rose halfway up her forehead and her jaw began to slacken a bit. This only lasted about a second before she pulled herself together and regained a tentative form of a smile. "Are you two…together?"

That simple question made Noriko and Shogo go red in the face. Shy little Noriko's face continued to redden, so Shogo simply stated, "Explains why I'm smiling, huh?"

This caused Izumi and Yukie to simultaneously raise their brows and look at each other, the surprise clear on their faces. Noriko then explained, "I was actually coming to let you guys know that I couldn't sit with you at lunch today. I have a prior engagement."

It was easy for Shogo to notice that, despite the significantly warmer treatment that he had begun receiving right about then, Utsumi and Kanai were still uneasy around him. After all, who could blame them?

"Congratulations," the bubbly Utsumi said with a wide smile. She was still playing with the end of her braids. She then turned her attention toward Noriko. "Tell me everything later, okay?"

Just as Noriko nodded, Izumi then piped up, "Don't leave me out of the loop."

It was just about then that the two girls left the new couple to themselves, Noriko immediately flashing an apologetic smile to Shogo. "Sorry about that."


End file.
